The present invention is broadly concerned with improvements in fishing reels and, more particularly, to a fishing reel with a fishing line spool which is rotated about a two axes to simultaneously wrap fishing line onto the reel and counteract twist in the line resulting from casting a lure tied to the end of the line.
Conventional fishing reels are generally classified as fly reels or fly casting reels, casting or bait casting reels, spinning reels, and spin cast reels, depending on their configuration. The various types of reels share certain characteristics: they include spools which store fishing line which can be payed out, either manually or by casting, or retrieved by turning a crank which is engaged with the spool. Additionally many types of reels incorporate some type of adjustable drag mechanism which functions to retard the pay-out of the line from the spool by a hooked fish, to tire the fish out to thereby facilitate landing the fish.
Fly reels tend to be the simplest reel configuration. Typically, a fisherman pulls a length of line from the real, and a fly lure is cast to the area to be fished to simulate the flying action of an insect, taking up the slack of the manually pulled out line. Thus, the reel usually does not affect the casting action. Bait casting or baitcasting reels are somewhat more complex than fly reels and typically incorporate some kind of drag adjustment and a laterally oscillating line guide to wrap the line on the spool in an orderly manner when the line is retrieved. When bait casting reels are used in casting, the inertia and friction of the spool limit the casting distance to some extent for a given weight of lure. Another spool inertia problem with bait casting reels is a tendency of the spool to continue spinning after the lure lands in the water, resulting in a condition referred to as backlash or “bird's nest” in which a quantity of line is fed off the spool into a tangled mass within the reel. Reels for fishing large marine fish tend to be upscaled bait casting reels. Fly reels and bait casting reels employ spools rotating about transverse axes, with fly reels mounted below the rod and bait casting reels mounted above the rod.
Spinning reels were originally developed to allow the casting of artificial flies which were too light to be effectively cast using bait casting reels. Spinning reels employ a spool which is rotationally stationary during casting and a rotating bail which wraps the line onto the reel when the crank is turned. On some spinning reels, the spool oscillates axially as the bail wraps the line thereon to provide more even wrapping. The spool is oriented with its axis parallel to the axis of the rod. For casting, the bail is pivoted to a casting position which releases it from the line. During casting, the line feeds out from the open side of the reel in a quasi-helical fashion, that is, in coils, unimpeded by either the bail or inertia of the spool. For this reason, spinning reels can employ lures and lines which are much lighter that those used on bait casting reels. The helical pay-out of the line during casting introduces a twist in a cast direction to the line. When the bail wraps the line back onto the spool, a twist in an opposite retrieve direction is imparted to the line, thereby mostly compensating for the casting twist.
The spool of a spinning reel is typically mounted on the reel frame to allow rotation, retarded by an adjustable frictional drag mechanism, to allow the line to be paid out by a hooked fish, against the drag. During such pay out, no twist is imparted to the line, since the bail is prevented from rotating by a one-way ratchet mechanism. However, when the bail is rotated by turning the hand crank to reel the hooked fish in, a twist in the retrieve direction is put into the line. Over a number of successful casts in which a fish is hooked and pulls the line out against the drag, the retrieve direction line twist can mount up, thereby causing tangling problems.
Spin cast reels share some of the characteristics of spinning reels in that the spool is rotationally fixed and oriented with an axis parallel with the rod. However, the open face of the spool of a spin cast reel is covered by somewhat conically shaped cup or nose cone with a center hole through which the line extends. Spin cast reels do not employ a bail but one or more rotary line pickup members which are released for casting and which wrap the line onto the spool when retrieving a lure. Some spin cast reels employ axial oscillation of the spool to wrap the line evenly on the spool. Spin cast reels can be used with fairly light weight lures and lines and generally have the same line twist problems as spinning reels.
Drag mechanisms in fishing reels allow a fisherman to employ relatively lighter lines and rods by allowing a hooked fish to “run” with a lure, pulling out line from the reel against the drag incorporated in the reel, and eventually exhausting the fish. Most of the drag mechanisms employed in conventional fishing reel configurations involve simple friction of a moving part rotating in contact with a stationary part. Drag adjustment is made by controlling the contact force applied between the moving and stationary parts. In typical frictional relationships, a relatively higher static friction must be overcome, after which a relatively lower and constant dynamic friction is maintained when there is relative movement between the parts. It is desirable to adjust the drag to maintain a tension in the line below the rated breaking strength of the line during initial movement and continued movement of the fish.
There have been some attempts to apply fluid based drag mechanisms to fishing reels. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,604 to Holmes, an eccentric vane pump is incorporated within a casting type reel. A pump rotor is engaged with the spindle of the spool and urges a fluid through passages containing an adjustable orifice to control fluid resistance to rotation of the spool. Although it is conceivable that such an arrangement could function, it is mechanically complex and, thus, likely to be expensive. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,699 to Sacconi, the spool is geared to a so-called turbine which revolves in a chamber filled with a fluid. The arrangement is asserted to be self adjusting in that the drag is proportional to the force exerted by a hooked fish. However, there is no provision for adjustment of the drag by the fisherman.